Photo Spotlights

RIT’s College of Liberal Arts co-sponsored “Globe at the Movies,” a film symposium celebrating the multifaceted nature of global films, on April 24. The free symposium, organized by Elena Rakhimova-Sommers, provided guests with opportunities to screen six internationally released films and participate in question-and-answer sessions with directors and film scholars. Here, a standing-room-only crowd viewed The Upside Down Book—a documentary about one family’s journey of discovery—written, produced and directed by Hinda Mandell, assistant professor of communication at RIT.

Dan Wang, a fourth-year professional photographic illustration student, was one of three photography students from New York who photographed the new 2015 Corvette Z06 convertible before it was revealed at the New York International Auto Show. His stunning shots of the Corvette received the most votes, declaring him the winner of the student competition. The grand prize is $5,000. For more information, go to http://s.chevy.com/voteZ06.

The co-owners of Century Mold Inc. and Parlec Inc., Ronald Ricotta, left, and Michael Nuccitelli, were honored with the 2014 Vanden Brul Entrepreneurial Award during a luncheon hosted by RIT’s Saunders College of Business on April 22 at Oak Hill Country Club. The award was created in 1984 and annually goes to a successful individual who developed a business that improved the Rochester economy or whose innovative management skills have changed the course of an existing business.

Three student teams from RIT were among 13 teams from nine colleges competing in the third annual NYSP2I Research and Development Student Competition. The New York State Pollution Prevention Institute challenged teams of full-time students enrolled at any institute of higher education in New York state to identify a specific activity at their university or in their community with a large environmental footprint. Teams were then required to design innovative solutions to reduce the issue’s impact. The teams presented their ideas at the Golisano Institute for Sustainability on April 22 as part of an Earth Day celebration.

Liisa Kauppinen, former president of the World Federation of the Deaf, visited RIT/NTID the week of April 14, presenting to numerous groups on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Kauppinen is a long-time WFD consultant for the United Nations and its special agencies and has been awarded the U.N. Human Rights Prize, among other international recognitions.

Sophie Faske, 4, takes off to gather eggs at RIT’s 10th annual Easter Egg Hunt on April 19. More than 1,000 candy-filled eggs were scattered across the Eastman Kodak Quad for children to find and put in their baskets. The event is co-sponsored by The Students of Art House and The RIT Leadership Institute and Community Service Center.

Dan Wang, a fourth-year professional photographic illustration student, was one of three photography students from New York who photographed the new 2015 Corvette Z06 convertible before it was revealed at the New York International Auto Show. Wang has a chance to win $5,000. For more information and to vote, go to http://s.chevy.com/voteZ06. Voting ends April 22.

RIT student Casey Martin shoots at an opposing team during the National Collegiate Paintball Association National Championship match April 12 in Lakeland, Fla. The RIT Paintball Club finished in 14th place, competing with 60 colleges. In the overall season, the team is ranked No. 1 in the Northeast and No. 3 in the U.S.

Each year, the senior leaders of the colleges and centers select one graduate from each college who represents the best of RIT. This year, RIT honored 10 Distinguished Alumni who stand out among the more than 110,000 accomplished graduates. The awards were presented on April 11. Pictured, from left to right, are Andrew Jacobson, Tristan O‘Tierney, Stacey Rychlewski, Mark Gentile, Johann “Hans” Demmel, Rick Kittles, Ricardo Venegas (RIT Alumni Association President) and Frank Sklarsky. Seated: Herb Eichelberger, Debra Heath-Thornton. Not pictured: Kelly McCormick-Sullivan. To read more about the 2014 Distinguished Alumni, go to www.rit.edu/news/story.php?id=50628.

Members of RIT’s Student Government traveled to Dubai during spring break to meet with the Student Government leaders of RIT Dubai, RIT Croatia-Dubrovnik and RIT Zagreb. Paul Darragh, Student Government president, and Nick Cifranic, Student Government vice president, attended the second RIT Student Government Global Consortium to help bring the global campuses together in a joint effort to promote idea sharing.

“I think that each campus learned something new that we will be able to take back home to improve student life,” said Darragh. “We even started making plans to all use the same sg.rit.edu website in the future.”

In addition to work, the group explored the city, took a desert safari on a dune buggy and rode camels. The group has stayed in touch through Google Hangout and they plan to continue meeting online every week.

Rick A. Kittles ’89 (biology) received a distinguished alumni award April 11. Kittles helped establish the National Human Genome Center. Currently, he is associate professor in the Department of Medicine and the Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of Illinois, Chicago. He is at the forefront of developing ancestry-informative genetic markers and studying how this information can be used to map genes for common traits and disease, especially among African-American populations. His talk, “The Epidemiology of Prostate Cancer: Genomic Insights,” was a College of Science Series Lecture.

A ceremonial groundbreaking for the Clinical Health Sciences Center took place April 11. The Clinical Health Sciences Center will accommodate the growth of existing and future clinical programs in RIT’s College of Health Sciences and Technology, including the new Wegmans School of Health and Nutrition. The facility will also house a primary care clinic operated by Rochester General Health System, a development made possible through the RIT-RGHS Alliance, now in its fifth year.